Pro Cycling News From the USA Pro Challange

Garmin-Sharp's Hardball Tactics Surprise at USA Pro Challenge

American squad attacks on Stage 1 and gets a win. But what did it cost them?

Joe Lindsey

(Photo by Peter Stetina, left, and Tom Danielson made a good go of their late attack on the road down into Telluride, but came up a bit short. Their teammate Tyler Farrar got the win all the same. (Wil Matthews))

Pretty much everyone at the 2012 USA Pro Challenge expected an early Stage 1 breakaway. They just maybe didn't expect that break.

When 22 riders representing 12 teams went up the road early in the race, it had all the signs of a race that might become impossible to control. Worse, among the 22 were some of the bigger names in the field, like Liquigas-Cannondale's Vincenzo Nibali, Omega Pharma's Peter Velits, and Garmin's Tom Danielson.

To cap off the bad news, Danielson had three teammates with him.

It was a fierce start to the race for the Colorado-based team, which barely missed out on a win last year with Christian Vande Velde.

"As a team we don't want to just follow the procession around until Sunday and finish third," said Garmin director Charly Wegelius at the finish. "We want to be more aggressive."

He declined to more fully detail the tactics, saying with a slight smile, "Some of it is for later in the week."

As support rider Alex Howes put it: "A lot of teams here like BMC and Liquigas and Omega all have a single hitter. We don't have the same top-end, but we have four to five guys who can go day in and day out, so we wanted to use those numbers to our advantage."

The tactic was so aggressive that at times the chase behind seemed unsure of what to do. BMC put riders on the front because, even with George Hincapie and Michael Schar present, they were riding for Tejay van Garderen.

Astana chased for similar reasons. But at other times, the chase was disorganized as teams looked to each other to take up the work.

"I was not surprised that the other teams would chase," said Wegelius. "No one is going to just let those kinds of riders tootle off down the road, but the fact that they didn’t react so much, I found quite surprising."

SpiderTech director Mike Carter said he was surprised by the ferocity of the attack.

"We expected a break with maybe eight riders, and that the big names would stay in the pack," he said. "We expected the catch to come before Lizard Head Pass and set up a big sprint."

There was a sprint, but from a vastly reduced field of just 57 of the 124 starters. The pace was so fast overall that the riders hit Telluride a full hour ahead of schedule.

Another sign of the intensity: seven abandons on the first day, including three from SpiderTech.